12 May 08
Mallard
Ron and Joe came to visit yesterday. We had a great time wandering around the arboretum, becoming intoxicated by the scent of a flowering Philadelphus (I’d love to put a couple of these in the garden in an area that’s just been cleared of sort of obnoxious groundcover, along the wall by the kitchen and bathroom windows… it’s called “Purple spot mock orange” and thrives in our hot, dry climate). We spotted Townsend’s and hermit warblers. We went north to see the tricolored blackbird colony. We had lunch at Kathmandu which was fairly mellow given that everyone was at the Whole Earth Festival. And we did a quick lap of the Festival because (well, just because).
I had planned to sketch a lot more than I did, but here’s a mallard and a Swainson’s hawk silhouette. I did a pastel drawing of a Western kingbird that I’ve yet to upload. The wind is ferocious just now and dust is blowing around horribly. I hope all the birds sitting on nests in high trees are okay…
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